Food insecurity brings need year-round

It was wonderful how communities rallied over Thanksgiving to make sure no one went hungry for this holiday that’s all about food. Giveaways of turkeys and side dishes seemed to be everywhere, from the Tacoma Police Department partnering with the Tacoma Ministerial Alliance to hold a series of drive-through giveaways to the Tacoma Rescue Mission serving hot Thanksgiving dinners at tables in the warmth of their facility.

In between, local food banks of all sizes held their own Thanksgiving gifting. Eloise’s Cooking Pot came to the aid of more than 800 people during its drive-through event that brought a line-up of vehicles stretched for blocks along McKinley Avenue.

“I have never seen so many turkey giveaways and I was so proud. We didn’t have to buy turkeys, so I bought gift cards to give out instead and it was great,” said Eloise’s founder and executive director Ahndrea Blue. “People have been very generous around Thanksgiving, and I think it’s a beautiful thing, but my question to them is, ‘What’s going to happen on Saturday?’”

By this, Blue means that people need to eat 365 days a year and not just at major holidays. With Christmas coming there will be another round of generosity from a wealth of people and places and Blue’s dream is for the giving to maintain that same level once the decorated trees come down and lights are put away.

“It’s easy for people to give around Thanksgiving because they are reminded. We should be focusing on the long-term issue, not that everyone deserves to eat just around the holidays,” Blue said. “People haven’t gotten to the point where they really believe that having food is a right – this whole notion that people should just take what’s given to them and feel lucky that someone gave them some free food versus that it’s an honor to serve people.”

And the needs go beyond food. Diapers and formula for infants are in constant need.

“When a parent has to choose to let their child sit in a diaper for just a little bit longer to make the diapers go further, that’s a horrible position for a parent to be in. Or to have to water down their milk to make it go a little bit further,” Blue said.

The Tacoma Rescue Mission is giving its resident families a hand-up by preparing for its family shopping day when families staying at the Mission get to create meaningful Christmas experiences for themselves and their children. Currently, 151 kids are staying in the Mission’s emergency family shelter.

A room at the Mission is set up for parents staying at the shelter to “shop” for their children and give a gift that came from them personally. Gifts from the broader community will help make this happen: gift cards for fast food restaurants and stores like Target and Walmart, bathroom essentials, make-up and hair care products, and, of course, toys (toy donations must be donated at the Mission’s Donation Center by Saturday, Dec. 9, for family shopping day on Dec. 11). Shop the wish list at https://a.co/bPUd2aO.

“It’s one of my favorite things we do because it’s dignifying for a parent to be able to give that gift. Every parent wants to be able to give their child something for Christmas,” said Mission Deputy Director Myron Bernard. “If Tacoma Weekly readers want to check out that wish list and buy something that would go into that family shopping room, that’s as important as food, meals and shelter. In the grand scheme, no, but in a lot of ways for a young person it means a ton and for that parent who will feel like there’s a little bit of hope.”

HERO VOLUNTEERS

It wouldn’t be possible for food banks to operate without the workforce of people providing the staffing and doing the heavy lifting. Volunteers are always in need for a range of tasks, so anyone looking to contribute their time beyond the holidays could contact any food bank and be welcomed with open arms. Friends volunteering together, families making it a group project, and individuals with a few hours to give all add up to making big impacts all year long.

At the Tacoma Adventist Community Services food bank on Portland Avenue, volunteer Ian Marshall shows the power of what one person can accomplish. Considering how busy this food resource is, there isn’t enough time, or helpers, to keep things tidy and organized but he did just that singlehandedly by jumping in and transforming the food bank’s back rooms into orderly spaces where there is a place for everything and everything is in its place.

“He loves to organize and got it all cleaned up. He truly is amazing. As long as he’s in school, we want him here. We’ve decided to adopt him,” Adventist volunteer coordinator Lori Caley-Thorne said with a warm smile.

Marshall came to the food bank as a student at Tacoma Community College where he is in the second semester of TCC’s nursing program. In about 15 more months, he will be a registered nurse and plans to stay in Tacoma to do this work.

It was at TCC that Marshall came to realize the need for food resources in that he himself, like many other students, needs this help as tries to get by while focusing on his studies and paying the associated expenses. One day, he went to check out the Max & Margi Harned Titan Food Pantry at TCC which is open to all TCC students for food and resource referrals to services in the community that can help with food insecurity. Marshall is vegan and he discovered that the Adventist food bank specializes in serving those with special diets.

“I looked at a list and I saw ‘special diets’ and I didn’t know that meant diabetes, kidney disease and heart disease, so I came thinking it was going to be a good place to accommodate my vegan lifestyle,” he said. “Being a student, I don’t work much and with grocery bills being so high, this is so helpful. I try to eat whole and plant-based food and they get so many good vegetables and lots of organic stuff.”

After his first visit to the Adventist food bank, he returned a few weeks later and began volunteering four days a week. When the food bank is open, it’s going non-stop so having him there is a big deal especially where keeping things organized is concerned.

There were piles of just “stuff” everywhere, he said, things set down to be moved later that never seemed to find their place. So, Marshall got to work methodically re-arranging area by area which opened up much more floor space, brought office and maintenance items out into view, and just gives a feel of efficiency that benefits everyone at the food bank.

“Once I start on those projects, I don’t want to stop. It took about a week for each project,” Marshall said. “They’ve given me a lot of autonomy to take care of things.”

His work at the food bank has touched him personally as well. “This has changed my life. I treat this as a job because I’m being compensated in food and I’m just glad to make everything smoother and more accessible for everybody.”

Marshall said that the Adventist food bank model of serving folks with special dietary needs brings in lower-income and vulnerable populations, so it’s important to provide them with food that’s going to make them feel better.

“If people aren’t eating well, their health could decline, and they may not be able to work or exercise as much or take care of their daily living,” he said. “If we’re giving people just canned food and processed meats, it’s not going to make them feel very good.”

 CHALLENGES & OPPORTUNITIES

With its six fixed location food banks and 14 additional mobile food bank sites, Nourish Pierce County is our county’s largest network of food banks. More than half of its clients are children and seniors. This past October, NPC served more people up to that point than it had in all of 2022.

From the community, NPC is most in need of volunteers and financial donations now and once the holidays are past. Prior to the pandemic, NPC had about 1,000 volunteers and is now making things work with just 700.

“With 26 staff members compared to that number, you can see our reliance on volunteers is enormous,” said NPC Deputy Director Ken Gibson. “One of the challenges we’ve had to deal with post-pandemic is hiring and retaining people. We have an opening for a food bank manager position at our Graham South Hill food bank.”

A major provider of food to Emergency Food Network and other partners, NPC must purchase food to supplement what it isn’t receiving from other sources.

“The best thing that people can do for most any food bank is donating dollars. We can go out and purchase that food and because we’re buying it by the truckload, we can purchase it at lower prices than people can even get in the store,” Gibson said. “Truly, every dollar makes a difference. For every dollar donated, we can leverage that into about $7 worth of product that we can purchase. It’s about $250 a year to help an individual at our food banks. It makes a tremendously huge difference.”

To learn more about opportunities to help now and in the New Year, contact any of the following:

Emergency Food Network: efoodnet.org / (253) 584-1040; Nourish Pierce County: nourishpc.org / (253) 383-3164; Eloise’s Cooking Pot: themadf.org / (253) 426-1994; Tacoma Adventist Community Services: Tacoma-acs.org / (253) 272-8289; Tacoma Rescue Mission: trm.org / (253) 383-4493.